"So with this Inferior mana crystal in, it won’t be able to kill anyone, right?"
"Yes. Just make sure to delicately control the mana inside of it when you switch between Lesser or Inferior mana crystals. You don’t want to accidentally push the mana too hard when you’re using the Inferior, like you would with the Lesser."
"Right," I said, "don’t want it to blow up on me."
"It’s not going to blow up on ya, lass," Gennady chimed in from the side, having gotten himself another drink. "I taught the lad how to make it so it won’t explode if you destabilize the mana crystal. Real Tinkerers design all their tools with that in mind. All of my weapons have that safety precaution on them. He’s a fast learner, unlike you."
"I’ve been busy." I scowled.
"Excuses, excuses."
I rolled my eyes, focusing back on the topic at hand.
"So what happens instead?" I asked.
"Nothing," Sevin said. "Or at least, it’s not supposed to do anything."
"It’s not going to fire some sort of supercharged bolt, is it?" I looked dubiously at him. But he quickly brought two hands out placatingly.
"It can happen, but that bolt itself wouldn’t be very… stable. I wouldn’t trust using a weapon like that that can blow up in my face. And once again, it won’t be incredibly powerful. Maybe it’d be more powerful than the regular bolt fired with a Lesser mana crystal? But it’s not worth it since it will destroy your mana crystal."
"Hah." Gennady folded his arms, gaining a look from me. "That shows you’re still inexperienced, Sevin. Tinkerers have to be open minded. They have to expect their weapons to blow up in their face if they want to improve."
"So if I accidentally destabilize the mana crystal in one of your weapons, it won’t explode on me, it would just fire something that could explode on me," I said, voice flat.
He held out a finger smugly. "Or it could just fizzle out. Or it could do something completely unexpected. Or it could just waste a mana crystal, doing absolutely nothing."
"I take it this is a last resort sort of thing?"
"‘Course," Gennady said, confident as ever.
"Well, I don’t want to test my luck— I don’t have good luck." I sighed, lowering the pistol. Turning to Sevin, I addressed the young man. "Thanks for this. I’ll probably be using it a lot, so keep making mana crystals, and I’ll buy them."
"And I can teach you how to make them too," Sevin quickly said.
"Sure. But tomorrow. I need to grab a bite to eat, then rest."
I bade farewell to the two of them, going to the dining area. It was a wooden building that could fit about 30 people all at once, and rummaged through the boxes for any dried food to eat. Their cook was asleep, but there was a pot of stew left in the open, so I grabbed some of that along with some dried meats before heading back to the ship. I never made it there, however, as I was intercepted by Braz.
"Yo!" He waved a hand cheerfully at me.
"Hello," I said, nodding my head at him before trying to sidle around him. "If you’ll excuse me, I have to go—"
"Nope," he cut me off. "The Captain wants to speak with you. And me. It’s important or something."
I sighed. Well that’s just great.
I said farewell to my delicious meal, before following after the man.
"Melas," Ginah greeted me as I entered the door. "Sorry for calling you over so late, especially after you had a long day of fighting."
"It’s fine," I lied. I glanced over at Lisa and Jack standing in the corner of the room, then to Kai was who was standing across the table from Ginah. "What’s wrong?" I narrowed my eyes.
"Nothings wrong— sheesh, why are you always so uptight?" The pirate Captain rested her hand on her forehead. "If anything, you should be asking what is right, because we have news from Lisa."
News? I cocked my head, but refrained from speaking.
"She told us that our attacks on the Elise have actually been working. So good job to you, Kai, and Braz."
"No probs!" Braz flexed an arm casually.
Kai and I sighed simultaneously, but did not remark on it. Ginah continued.
"In fact, our attacks have been working so well, we’ve drawn out the Half Elf himself: Bahr."
My head snapped to Ginah. "What?"
"Yes," she said. "Bahr himself will be overseeing the arrival of his next supply of enuim reaches the docks of Luke without any trouble. This presents for us a perfect opportunity."
"You want to cut the snake off at the head."
"Correct."
"I…" I turned from face to face, meeting everyone’s stare. I paused for a moment at Lisa. Is this a trap? I thought. But I shook that thought out of my mind. Figure out what’s happening first, before judging.
"So what are we doing?" I asked.
"Right now? Nothing." Ginah crossed her arms over her chest. "We’re not going to begin our plan until we know whether you’ll be joining us or not."
I frowned. "What do you mean by that?"
"Kai has told me a lot about you, Melas," she said, and I felt my heart jump for a moment. Panicked thoughts crossed my mind for a moment… until she continued. "He told me that he thinks you’re reliable. Trustworthy."
"...what?"
Kai straightened, then nodded in my direction. "I’ve seen you fight, Melas. You fought the Dark Crusaders without hesitation, and you’ve also helped us against the Elise. If you haven’t betrayed us so far, I have no reason to believe you’d betray us now. And against Bahr— a Dark Acolyte Apostle— we need every help we can get. Especially from a spellcaster like you."
I paused. Wait, so he trusts me? I had assumed he didn’t.
